sales competencies
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3 Types of Salespeople – Which are Best at Growing Sales?
- July 30, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The pessimist complains about the prospect. The optimist expects him to buy. The realist adjusts the sales strategy.
Let’s look at these three points a little more closely, shall we?
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The Unusual Case of Arturo – How He Sabotaged His Own Sales
- July 26, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Solving the problem was actually quite easy. I explained to Arturo that his prospects were wondering, “If he doesn’t follow up when he is trying to get the business, what kind of follow-up will I get after he has the business? He doesn’t appear to care very much or be very reliable, so I don’t think I will buy from him.”
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Top 5 Sales Management Best Practices
- July 24, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s see how those actually compare with the Top 5 Sales Management Best Practices – not the things sales managers necessarily do, but the things sales managers should do:
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Prospecting Trends for the Sales Force
- July 19, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Three salespeople left voice-mail messages for me today. They were all cold calls, they were all bad, and they were all following up on brochures they dropped off last week. Nothing out of the ordinary here, as one of the callers wanted to know when our copier leases expire, one wanted to know when our commercial real estate lease expires and two wanted to introduce themselves as our new reps.
There are several reasons why they were so bad:
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What Leads to Salespeople Underperforming?
- July 16, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Doesn’t it drive you mad when terrific, yet underperforming salespeople, take time off for their car to be serviced, to bring their pets to the vet, to spend time with visiting family members, to work out of the house, when they feel under the weather, to meet a with a contractor, for the dentist, for their annual physical, etc? Take a vacation – no problem – but if you’re not on vacation, then work for crying out loud!
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How Do Sales Professionals Stay Motivated?
- July 12, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The most important thing to understand is that when someone must ask how to motivate their salespeople, they may not have the right salespeople!
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When Should You Use a Telemarketing Firm to Schedule Sales Calls?
- July 10, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you would like to establish new accounts and generate a significant increase in revenue, there are several things you can do:
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Are (Lack of) Results Due to the Salesperson or the Company?
- July 9, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Whether your salespeople are underperforming or doing well, are they responsible or is it your company, culture, advertising or offerings that’s responsible?
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Must Read – Accenture / CSO Insights Sales Optimization Study
- December 2, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In their latest study (thanks to Charlie for sending it to me) – Accenture reported on the 2000 companies worldwide that CSO Insights surveyed. I identified some very interesting findings and if there was a big surprise it was that nothing surprised me! In fact, it supports everything I’ve written about here for the past 5 years. Consider the following:
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The Myth of Sales Habits and Competencies
- February 23, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If they realized that they had gotten out of the habit of doing anything, then did they really ever have a habit? When something is a habit, one always does it and nothing would prevent it from getting done. So it is far more likely that there was never, ever anything even close to resembling a habit.